Carbon Quantum Dots Confined into Covalent Triazine Frameworks for Efficient Overall Photocatalytic H2O2 Production

Abstract

AbstractPorous organic polymers have an outstanding performance in the field of photocatalysis with the advantage of diverse structure composition and purposeful molecular design. However, the inherent high impedance and poor electrical conductivity of organic semiconductors still restrict the charge transfer efficiency and thus discount the photocatalytic performance. Herein, the study reports a highly conductive covalent triazine framework (CTF) loading carbon quantum dots (CQDs) into porous as electron transport medium. The addition of CQDs (0.5 wt%) can enhance the electronic conductivity of CTF by tenfold. In addition, the as‐prepared CQD‐CTFs express much‐promoted charge separation and transfer efficiency. Furthermore, the embedded CQDs can improve the oxidization capacity and increase the affinity of H+ due to the more negative zeta potential. The enhanced oxidizing ability and increased H+ affinity are positive for water oxidation reaction (WOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation, respectively. The optimized CQD‐CTF exhibits a high H2O2 generation rate of up to 1036 µmol g−1 h−1 in pure water without any sacrificial agent under visible light, which is 4.6 times than pristine CTF. This work provides a new idea for efficient H2O2 production of organic semiconductors.